Richard Gerber

What a blast connecting with 6th graders yesterday for solar observing at the Robert Ferguson observatory. Bright kids: one wanted to know if 1 million Earths would fit into the Sun as a total volume or just by packing in spheres!

A Black Hole Egg That Forgot to Hatch Astrobites reports on how astronomers got a closer view of the distant and mysterious little red dots.

A nice article on Little Red Dots: A Black Hole Egg That Forgot to Hatch - aasnova.org/2026/01/13/a...

Bennu Bennu is a small, near-Earth asteroid that passes relatively close to Earth about every six years. It was the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.

Fascinating talk from Daniella DellaGiustina at #AAS247. If you missed it, you should read about asteroid Bennu science.nasa.gov/solar-system...

I attended a great Astro data science tutorial at #AAS247 and learned a lot about querying and working with Astro data sources. Kudos to Azalee Bostroem and her team for creating a great experience.

Joel was a giant in the field of cosmology and galaxy formation. Best known as a co-author of the theory of cold dark matter (CDM) and galaxy formation, his contributions shaped the foundations of the subject, and his passing leaves
a gap that cannot be filled.

I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of UCSC cosmologist and astrophysicist Joel Primack. I enjoyed working with him in my role at NERSC, and he was also very kind to me, allowing me to listen in on discussions associated with the AGORA galaxy simulations comparison project.

The ingredients for an unbeatable squash shot In four-walled racket sports such as squash, one type of shot reigns supreme: the nick. It occurs when a player hits the 4-centimeter ball to the right-angled spot where the wall of the court meets th...

Must reading for my racquetball friends: pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

U.S. abandons hunt for signal of cosmic inflation Now-canceled CMB-S4 project would have searched the afterglow of the Big Bang for signs of cosmic exponential growth spurt

So very sad :-( U.S. abandons hunt for signal of cosmic inflation | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

At Amazon’s Biggest Data Center, Everything Is Supersized for A.I.

At Amazon’s Biggest Data Center, Everything Is Supersized for A.I. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/t...

Muon Experiment Calls It a Wrap The final results from the Muon g − 2 experiment agree with the latest predictions of the muon’s magnetic properties—letting down hopes that the particle would upset the standard model’s applecart.

physics.aps.org/articles/v18... Great accomplishments by experimental teams and Lattice QCD calculations.

DOE Announces New Supercomputer Powered by Dell and NVIDIA to Speed Scientific Discovery - NERSC: National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center During a visit to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced a new contract with Dell Technologies to develop NERSC-10, the next flagship su...

www.nersc.gov/news-and-eve...

Cosmic CT Scan Uncovers a Surprising Twist in the Universe’s Evolution Over billions of years, the universe has transformed from a simpler state into an intricate cosmic web, but new research hints that the growth of cosmic structures may not have unfolded exactly as pre...

Science @nersc.bsky.social : scitechdaily.com/cosmic-ct-sc...

Opinion | An Interactive Map of Global Migration Dive into a new data set released by Meta, charting immigration flows among 181 countries over four years.

So Cool : www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Advanced microelectronics: Why a next-gen semiconductor doesn't fall to pieces A new class of semiconductors that can store information in electric fields could enable computers that run on less power, sensors with quantum precision, and the conversion of signals between electri...

Science @nersc.bsky.social : news.umich.edu/advanced-mic...

Science @nersc.bsky.social : Imaging Nuclear Shapes by Smashing them to Smithereens url:https://www.newswise.com/doescience/imaging-nuclear-shapes-by-smashing-them-to-smithereens2/?article_id=826415

New DESI Results Strengthen Hints That Dark Energy May Evolve The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument used millions of galaxies and quasars to build the largest 3D map of our universe to date.

Science @nersc.bsky.social newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/03/19/n...

A new way to engineer composite materials

Science @nersc.bsky.social A New Way to Engineer Composite Materials: The innovative polymer design combines strength with reversibility newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/03/06/a...

Science Magazine - Assessing soil health with underpants We watched as the two young boys stuck their shovels in the ground and painstakingly dug up the remains of the underpants.

Brilliant! Science Magazine - Assessing soil health with underpants www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...

College Football Playoff format for next season still in limbo as commissioners punt on making seeding changes Playoff executives explored changes to the 2025 postseason Tuesday but came to no decision on a proposal from the Big Ten and SEC to alter the playoff seeding.

The winner will be: whatever makes the college football athletic programs the most money: sports.yahoo.com/college-foot...

Ugh: Science Magazine - U.S. cuts support for IPCC report www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...

DESI uncovers 300 intermediate-mass black holes plus 2,500 active black holes in dwarf galaxies Using early data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a team of scientists have compiled the largest sample ever of dwarf galaxies that host an actively feeding black hole, as well as...

Science @NERSC: DESI uncovers 300 intermediate-mass black holes plus 2,500 active black holes in dwarf galaxies phys.org/news/2025-02...

Very cool new Einstein Ring observed: cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrop...

The Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program is now accepting applications. science.osti.gov/wdts/scgsr/

NIH slashes overhead payments for research, sparking outrage and lawsuit Move to cut indirect cost rate to 15% could cost universities billions of dollars

NIH proposes cutting overhead rate. On the other hand, once a few small states realize they will lose $100s of millions, this might not happen.
www.science.org/content/arti...

us17.campaign-archive.com?e=bb18d24ef0...

DOE’s Office of Science is now Accepting Applications for Office of Science Graduate Student Research Awards content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USD...

NERSC Collaborates with PPPL to Optimize Fusion Energy via Simulation Jan. 31, 2025 — With the help of supercomputers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have confirmed throug...

NERSC Collaborates with PPPL to Optimize Fusion Energy via Simulation www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire...

A New Fusion Prototype Floats Into Action OpenStar’s levitating dipole device ditches the traditional doughnut-shaped design

A non-tradition Fusion reactor design is getting some press: spectrum.ieee.org/dipole-fusio...

Leading AI Companies Get Lousy Grades on Safety A new report from the Future of Life Institute gave mostly Ds and Fs

Not surprising, I suppose: spectrum.ieee.org/ai-safety

AI Uncovers Potentially Hazardous, Forgotten Oil and Gas Wells | NVIDIA Technical Blog With as many as 800,000 forgotten oil and gas wells scattered across the US, researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), have developed an AI model capable of accurately locating…

Science @nersc.bsky.social : AI Uncovers Potentially Hazardous, Forgotten Oil and Gas Wells | NVIDIA Technical Blog developer.nvidia.com/blog/ai-unco...